Is social drinking during pregnancy harmless?

The last 10 to 15 years have provided a growing body of evidence that demonstrates a distinct relationship between excessive alcohol consumption during pregnancy and birth defects. In light of this voluminous quantity of research, no responsible health professional or researcher would deny that alcohol can cause fetal abnormalities if consumed chronically and in large quantities. However, close examination of the literature does not support the no threshold corollary--that is that any amount of alcohol will have a detrimental effect on the fetus. At present, it appears that only those women who consume large amounts of alcohol on a chronic basis are at risk of giving birth to children with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and its associated anomalies. Prevention should be aimed at this group of women. Blanket warnings and recommendations for total abstinence may serve little purpose other than to instill unnecessary fear, anxiety and guilt in those women at little or no risk while having no affect on the real target audience; the chronic heavy drinkers.